Rocket to the Moon

Ive been rooting about in my mums attic and discovered my old box of model kits. One of the most fragile was always the Strombecker USS Explorer Rocket. A very basic kit, but extremely striking. Based loosely on Von Brauns early rocket designs, the three stage ship has the clean lines of a SWORD vehicle and the classic look of early space exploration. Id managed to lose one of the principal fins from the first stage in a box somewhere in the attic and it was a great relief to find it once more! Its unfortunately beyond restoration now, so ill have to try and find another copy of the kit and see if i can make a better job of it, some 20 years later!

Sitting next to it is the Glencoe re-issue of the Von Braun Ferry Rocket, complete with space plane. This is a more robust model which breaks down into five separate stages.

Finally, another of my favourite classic kits, the Revel Convair Space Shuttle. Another re-issue of a vintage kit, this is a large booster topped by a three part shuttle vehicle. This has been featured on the early days of the blog as a re-imagined SWORD Nuclear Shuttle.

Im currently working on a custom model of a moon rocket made from a plastic champers glass and a lip gloss bottle! Watch this space!

TRI-ANG GAMES, SHARNA TOYS, THOMAS SALTER AND LITTLE BIG MAN

Here's a few snaps of toy catalogues and leaflets in my loft. First is a 1960's Tri-ang Games fold-out leaflet full of great old games. Have a look for the awesome 007 Underwater Battle Game. Later comes a Thompson Toys catalogue 1974 showing several pages including the cool Sharna Action Man truck. There's a page of Bradgate/ Lion Rock's excellent Little Big Man, the diminutive cousin of Action Man/GI Joe (there's a photocopied leaflet showing the full range too - no Spaceman?). Finally is another page from 1974 showing the only space you in  the catalogue - the Astronaut suit - proof postive that the space race was virtually over in toys by then. Have a gander at the Thomas Salter Adventure Set (I had the earlier Sixties' version) and the fab spy sets (besides space my other favourites!).

T (IN A CIRCLE) PORSCHE ?

In my ongoing search for all things T (in a Circle) I have come across this Martini Porsche toy car on Ebay US. Although the T logo has a shadowed T (or is it TT?) in it I still think it's circle and use of the phrase "made in Hong Kong" would suggest it's a T toy but the model number 208S doesn't fit the T format and would place it before the Moon Ranger #355, which we know is a 1960's T toy. It's titled "Die Cast Speedy Racers" and there's a Lancia in the series too. On the cardback is sticker "Distributed by Aurora, Walnut Creek, CA 94596". The listing says it was "added to the collection" in 1986. For the T die-hard and of interest to me as it suggests that T were still producing toys in the 1980's. What's the connection to Aurora and is it the same Aurora as in the Universal Monster models? Is this a T toy or a TT toy?

There are more T toys currently available - pistol, minnie mouse - but as they aren't space or at least transport related I've simply added them to the T checklist, which can be found in the side-bar.

CARPET WARS

This was a familiar scene in my bedroom during the Sixties. Carpet Wars between the Airfix Army and the Dinky UFO Interceptor. Sheer numbers of plastic infantry were not enough against the battalion-flattening missile of the Interceptor. Perhaps 5 sorties and fifty soldiers were toast. Alas, the Alvis Stalwart troop carrier always went home empty. There was something very SWORD about that Alvis. Did anyone else stage carpet wars?

O CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN

Ebay

Mattel's Captain Lazer - above - was one of my all-time fave toys as a kid in Sixties Preston. The day-glo purples and blues of the speckled shield and the ribbed ray-lance held me spellbound. The glowing eyes and chestplate did too. Above all I loved the strange wobbly sound when you pressed the button on the backpack and the fiddled with grey slidey aerial. As expected ol' Cap was one of the first of my old treasures I bought again when I was a 'big' kid with enough grown-up pocket money. It's not as good as it was back then in those endless tizer-drenched years of childhood but it's not bad knowing it's in the cabinet upstairs. Years later in 1978 I was amazed to see 'my' Captain again in a different guise, Mattel's Colonial Warrior from Battlestar Galactica. They'd simply used the same moulds I guess to create a white-haired version, who reminds me of Leslie Nielson! I don't have the Warrior but presumably the original accessories fit the imposter: ray lance, shield, helmet and so on?

Ebay

And finally, just googling for Captain Lazer I found this amazing 'homepage', which includes an old photograph of a huge Captain model suspended from a crane at the 1969 German Toy Fair!  The passers-by don't even notice! Fabulous.Wonder where he ended up?

O Captain My Captain! Our fearful trip is done (Walt Whitman)

MAMA WE'RE ALL CRAZEE NOW

Been to see The Crazies tonight at the local Cineworld. I went mostly out of curiosity as it's a remake (yes, another) of a 1973 flick of the same name by zombiemeastro George A. Romero, a film I never managed to see largely because it was never on late night UK TV as I was growing up. I knew about the '73 film back then as it was featured in monster mags I got at the time like Quasimodo and Halls of Horror. I've always been fascinated by apocolyptic scenarios in books and films and the Crazies is one such tale of a small American town stricken by a deadly virus, which can only be contained using extreme measures. It's stablemates include Outbreak and the much more interesting and vintage Andromeda Strain. The current rash of post-apocolyptic flims like the Crazies, The Road and the Book of Eli I think are a sign of the times, where worldwide recession and pandemic have heightened our most primal of fears - will we survive? 

SOLO PROJECT SWORD COMIC STRIP 4 JULY 15th 1967

courtesy of Bufo Philosophicus aka The Philosophic Toad.

You're a star. You 'reddit' here!

THUNDERLOUNGING

I'm not a frequenter of hip joints but if I were I'd have a nosey in Fab Cafe in Leeds, UK, up the road. There's another one in Manchester. Are there any other Andersonized or Sci-Fi caffs and restaurants out there across the globe?

PS. The Tripods Have Landed - check out the NOVY MOST UFO cafe in Bratislava!